Samuel Brannan

Samuel Brannan (2 March 1819-5 May 1889) was an American businessman and journalist who founded the California Star, the first newspaper in San Francisco. He was also the first man to publicize the Gold Rush and became its first millionaire.

Biography
Samuel Brannan was born in Saco, Maine, and, at the age of 14, he moved to Painesville, Ohio. In 1842, he joined the LDS Church in nearby Kirtland and purchased land near Cleveland, although he was impoverished when the land prices crashed. He became more involved with the church and began printing The Prophet newspaper in New York City in 1844, and, in 1846, he led a Mormon colonization mission to San Francisco, California, tripling the population of the pueblo. He established the California Star as the city's first newspaper, and, in 1848, he travelled to John Sutter's mill and discovered an easier path to riches than working the streams. He opened a mine tools store next to Sutter's Mill to cater to the needs of gold-seekers, and his newspaper publicized the discovery of gold, leading to the Gold Rush and a dramatic rise in Brannan's fortunes. By June 1848, 3/4 of the men living in San Francisco had left the town to search for gold, and so many Mexicans headed north that an American believed the entire state of Sonora was on the move. Thousands more arrived from South America, Hawaii, China, and elsewhere, and gold seemed to be everywhere. Brannan, the state's first millionaire, began to advocate for abolitionism, founded the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance in 1851 to maintain law and order, and became a State Senator in 1853. In 1861, he founded the town of Calistoga, and he founded the Napa Valley Railroad there in 1864. Many poor residents of the region opposed Brannan's takeover of the region and wounded him in an 1869 assassination attempt, forcing him to use a cane for the rest of his life. He became a brewer and an alcoholic, but he was granted an estate in Sonora by President Benito Juarez due to his expulsion of unwanted Frenchmen from Mexican lands. He died in Escondido, California in 1889.